Feds didn’t pick up Bent County inmate as they were ordered to before his escape

BENT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- It's been nearly five days since four inmates escaped from the Bent County Jail and one career criminal is still on the run. 13 Investigates learned new details about an apparent lapse in oversight at the state and federal level that kept that inmate at the small Southern Colorado jail.

Mark Fox, 46, was sentenced to 64 years in prison on June 7 after being convicted of multiple assault charges. He was also tried as a habitual criminal which is why he garnered such an elevated sentence in Otero County court.

Fox had been at the Bent County Jail on numerous felony charges since 2020 when Sheriff Jake Six says he and three other inmates were able to escape sometime between Sunday night and Tuesday morning.

In the days following Fox's escape, 13 Investigates found that Fox had a federal warrant for his arrest issued on April 19. He was previously indicted on seven counts of federal crimes including crop insurance fraud conspiracy, extortion by mail, falsification of documents, witness tampering, and obstruction.

The language of his federal warrants reads that any authorized law enforcement officer in the state of Colorado or nationally is commanded to "arrest and bring before a United States magistrate judge without unnecessary delay," Mark Desmond Fox. However, for three months before his escape Fox was never brought before a United States Judge, despite federal and state authorities knowing exactly where he was: sitting in the Bent County Jail.

"If the federal government says we're going to go pick this person up, the state can't do anything about it. The marshals show up at the jail, said, you're giving us Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox goes with the marshals that day," Colorado Springs attorney Jeremy Loew said. "However, the state attorneys can ask the feds to hold off on picking somebody up. So that's likely what occurred here."

How the federal court system works is someone is brought before a United States Judge and is ordered to either be released on a form of bail or be held on no bond in a federal facility until their case reached a disposition. Given Fox's lengthy criminal history in the state, Loew believes a federal judge would have denied him bail, effectively keeping him away from the community and the very same jail he escaped from.

"They would never have given him bail because he had the 64-year sentence at the Colorado Department of Corrections that he would have had to serve. There is zero chance that Mr. Fox would have ever received bond on the federal case," Loew said.

In addition to the apparent oversight with his federal warrant, Fox wasn't immediately sent to a Colorado Department of Corrections prison after his sentencing in June because the 16th Judicial District Attorney kept several lower-level felony cases open.

Those cases were charges of vehicular eluding, attempting to influence a public servant and stalking. All of these cases were from 2020 and 2021. Given Fox's 64-year prison sentence levied by a judge in June, Loew is struggling to understand why these cases were kept open.

"It doesn't make any sense why this district attorney's office wasted time of both of their agency, law enforcement, the judges, and the courts time to prosecute somebody when they already had the 64 years locked down and a federal indictment coming down the pike," Loew said.

The 16th Judicial District Attorney's office has not responded to our requests for comment on why these cases were still open. However, because they were, Loew says Fox was kept on pre-trial incarceration in the Bent County Jail.

"This is absolutely astounding. As a sheriff, you have two jobs: to keep the community safe and to keep the jails running. This sheriff failed on both fronts," Loew said. "He didn't keep the jails running because four individuals escaped and he didn't even know it because there wasn't a count for four days and he has not kept the community safe because there were four individuals that were on the run."

13 Investigates reached out to the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Colorado to find out why Fox's federal warrant was never enforced. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado told 13 Investigates it couldn't provide a comment.